[FB] Crossbone Gundam X1 Kai Thread

lark · January 22, 2014

Thread for X1 general discussion.

Formal Name: XM-X1 CROSSBONE GUNDAM X-1 (F97 GUNDAM FORMULA NINETY SEVEN)

Pilot: Kincaido Nau(Seabook Arno) Cost: 2500 Armor: 580 Mantle: 120

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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1. Ranged Weapons

5. Cancel Routes

9. Front and Back

13. Boost Dash Melee

17. Melee Target Switch Combos

2. Melee

6. Best Partners

10. Double Front

14. Tobia Usage

18. Cut Resistant Combos

3. Melee Strings

7. General Gameplan

11. BR Usage

15. Radar Confirm

19. Anticut Techniques

4. ABC Mantle

8. Macro Movement

12. Side Whip Usage

16. Zunda Ammo Conservation

[td][/td]

[/table]

Movelist

Ranged Weapons

[A] Zanbuster

[Damage = 70] [stock = 5] [Down value = 2] [Proration = 70%] [Reload Time = 4s/1 shot] [Type = Beam] [staggers]

Primary ranged beam rifle. Below average reload time and damage.

[CSa] Grenade Launcher

[Damage = 120] [Charge Time = 1.5s] [Down value = 5+] [Proration = 60%?] [Type = Physical Projectile] [Downs]

Fires a grenade with fast travel time and excellent vertical tracking.

[EX CSa] Nuke Launcher

[Damage = ?] [Charge Time = 1s] [Down value = .25 x 20?] [Proration = ?] [Type = Physical Projectile] [Downs]

Can only fire in burst. 1 stock per burst. Explosion causes a nuke.

[A+C] Pez Batara Summon (Tobia)

[Damage = 13~117?] [stock = 3] [Down value = 0.2 x 10?] [Proration = 3% x 10?] [Type = Melee Assist] [Downs]

One of the best assists in the game with fast startup. The tracking lasts an long time and does exceptional damage while keeping the opponent in hitstun. Doesn't reload.

[2B] Beam Shield Throw

[Damage = 60~111?] [Down value = 2 x 2] [Proration = 85%? x 2] [Type = Beam/Dummy] [staggers]

X1 throws two beam shields that remove guidance on enemy assists targeting X1 and shields from incoming fire. Amekyan when cancelling into BR. Can only have one 2B out at a time.

Melee

[A+B]Screw Whip

5A+B [Damage = 20, 174 (11 hits)] [Down value = 1] [Proration = 90%] [Type = Melee] [Captures]

5A+B sends X1's whip forward and subdues the enemy with decent muzzle correction and good range. 5A followups will produce electric shocks along the whips. Up to 10 followups before a forced knockdown extremely high damage buff in FB. New to FB is the 5B followups which has X1 pull and leap over the enemy allowing for cut resistant combos. His 2B followup is his old vanilla pull.

6A+B [Damage = 90] [Down value = 3] [Proration = 80%] [Type = Melee] [Downs]

4A+B or 6A+B sends X1's whip to the side producing a ranged area attack with coverage in front of X1. This is X1's signature attack.

[b+C]Beam Zanber Rotation

[Damage = 254 (full)]

Special melee attack and B followups that is used in high damage combos. X1 launches the enemy into the air, fires a projectile whip causing stun, and juggles the opponent by spinning his beam zanber. Extremely poor cut resistance, takes time to finish, and screams to enemy teammate to shoot X1. FB changes involve faster followup, shorter launch, and change of projectile property to melee type to hit through mantle, pyramid, etc.

[A+B+C]Beam Zanber Reckless Strikes

[Damage = 262/238 (full)]

EX Burst attack. Ranbu special. High damage, low cut resistance. 8 hit attack with initial hits having low down value and final hits causing down.

Melee Strings

5BBBB

Standard melee string. 3rd hit launches the enemy and X1 into the air, 4th hit has X1 rider kick towards the ground. Allows for faster transportation to the ground if high in the air.

5BB8B

8B ender launches the enemy and keeps X1 grounded.

5B2B or 5BB2B

X1 stabs brand marker into the enemy for the 2B ender and causes heavy stun. Useful for ending combos earlier and disabling an opponent for a period of time.

8BB

Launches enemy into the air and keeps X1 grounded. Much faster to execute than the 5BB8B string.

6BB

X1 stabs brand marker forward and kicks downward for the second part. Fastest startup attack for X1. Use this in rainbow step fights. Note that 6B hits 4 times and down value increases per hit, this allows you to do more damage by cancelling the first hit of 6B into whip without causing a knockdown after 6B hits.

BD8BB

X1 rushes forward and unleashes a flurry of hits. Nerfed from Vanilla EXVS but still has the excellent range and damage. This is your go-to melee \when you want to engage. Duration is fairly long and there is little to no cut resistance.

ABC Mantle

120 points of damage. Does not regenerate when spawning in cost over.

Anti-beam coating mantle worn by X1 that will absorb beam projectile damage and essentially allows X1 to super armor through these attacks. Once 120 points of damage are absorbed, the mantle will come off and X1 will be vulnerable to beam projectiles. The mantle will not protect against physical-type weaponry such as machine guns, rockets, daggers, etc. Damage on mantle is not prorated meaning that 2 hits from a zunda will remove the mantle. However, damage does become prorated when X1 has been comboed into mantle damage, such as a melee into a beam rifle or beam rifle OTG.

Some projectiles are hard to tell if mantle will absorb:

Will absorb:

Beam projectiles

Dragon's Flame Shot

Unicorn's Psycommu Jack

Seed-styled Full Burst shots (blue/red shots)

Xenon F Extreme Evolution side sub (neutral will go through)

X1's 2B

WIll not absorb:

Physical ammunition. Bazookas, rockets, etc.

Daggers, beam boomerangs

God and Master's Main and CS

Pressure

Cancel Routes

BR→A+B, 2B

2B→BR (Amekyan)

Anything→CSa

Best Partners

3000: Wing Gundam Zero, V2 Gundam, Reborns Gundam, 00 Quanta, Master

2500: Banshee, The O, Gundam X DV,

1000: Zuda, Tank

2000: lol bad cost composition

General Gameplan

Look for landings. Look for excessive boost use. Punish overaggressive plays with melee attacks. Punish unaware opponents. Cut for your partner. Get in and get out. Force boost out of opponents with movement pressure. Whip the shit out of them. Be patient and play safe.

Edited February 12, 2014 by lark

lark · January 22, 2014

The following is an ongoing guide for Full Boost. The base of the guide is from vanillia.

Fundamental Techniques for the X1 Player:

SHORT HOPS, SHORT BOOSTS AND MACRO MOVEMENT

X1 has below average speed for his boost dash and below average rising speed. It is essential to use this to your advantage and incorporate shorter jumps to cover distance because of this supposed shortcoming. X1 excels at is being able to rapidly move and hop quickly because of the combination of poor stats and excellent boost capacity. Although many other suits share this line of thought, it becomes somewhat easier to understand that the best way to conserve boost while still moving is to perform short boosts and short hops to cover distance and landing early. In this way you have many more movement options to play with for when it counts in melee range with the faster recovery. Of course, you will still want to dodge whatever your opponents throw at you.

Considering the above movement, when should you short boost and when should you short hop? There is no real answer because you can do both at all ranges. You have to weigh your options with your composition and the opponent's weapons. To elucidate this line of thought, you have to realize that there are suits that can actually punish you for these early landings like snipers and some charge shots. Again, you must react to the arrows on the sides of your screen and be prepared to move. For example, if you are doing a short boost and see Strike Freedom using his csA, you better start performing the input for a kansei jump and look to either punish, land earlier than him, or retreat. The best movement option in near melee range for effective reactions is the kansei jump as you will have more time to judge distance, dodge incoming fire, etc, in comparison with the short boost.

Remember that fundamental movement for suits across the board still apply to this suit. X1 will still need to do large arcing kansei jumps to move large distances while maintaining boost efficiency and for fundamental safety. You won't be running away using short hops as this does not cover enough distance (unless you are baiting or something I dunno) and you also don't want to be obvious with your boosts. Your movement should be well coordinated with your partner. If you see an opening, both you and your teammate need to take action.

The goals of movement with X1 are to make the opposing team feel threatened. In general, other suits do not want to get into X1's melee range at neutral unless they themselves are melee suits. Make sure that your team is not stuffed into the corner and push the opposing team to a more favorable location.

BR USAGE

Be very stingy about your BR usage. Always justify each of your BRs because they are precious. Keep in mind that BR regeneration is once per 4 seconds (average good BR is 3 seconds). You will always want at least 2 in cases of landing punishes and cutting. There is nothing worse than seeing an obvious landing and having no ammo to punish. Be aware of the chance for resets as well with 2 shot zundas. This conserves your ammo allows you to get into better positioning. (There are also a host of possible problems that can arise from it though). Use it enough to scare the opponent into moving and capitalize off of your actions.

Another technique that you will find universally that you should adopt into your bloodstream is the BR jump confirm into falling BR. What this will look like is basically a BR and a arcing kansei jump into a falling BR. This reduces your boost consumption and allows you to toss out a BR while gaining ground and allows you to visually confirm if there is a hit. The falling BR is there to keep pressure on the opponent if needed.

In many cases, you might actually feel the need to zunda like crazy to gain an advantage. This is actually very fine because the point of zunda for X1 is to pressure the opponent and leading them to a disadvantage in boost to allow for you to capitalize. Ideally, as long as you can do this, it is useful. Keep in mind your half burst availability once it is near and you can be far more liberal with your resources.

SIDE WHIP USAGE

The whip is one of X1's strongest tools that he has. It has excellent startup, muzzle correction, and range. Outside of ending combos early, it has a variety of usages.

Whip usage in the neutral game in anticipation of enemy movement towards you is one of the biggest and scariest part of X1. He can very easily shut down any forward movement made by another player and on whiff can react with a variety of safe options.

Whip>Whip>xN This technique is useful because it covers and retracks ranges that are near X1. It essentially creates a hitbox wall in front of X1 and is one of the stronger defensive tools in the game. Be cautious as this drains a lot of meter with excessive use.

Using whip on offense is also extremely strong as it will catch on vector, side stepping, and those who aren't aware of its range. For example, X1 has created a hard knockdown and is sitting on oki and pops 2B in response to the animation of wakeup. The opponent in response holds C. X1 can actually punish this with whip provided he is in red-lock and in most cases, this is faster than his BR making this a suitable reactionary punish.

However, it will lose out to a variety of tools. Fuwa step is the primary evasion technique that will cause a whip to miss. Dives like Xenon's 2B will also cause whips to whiff so be very wary. It will also lose to "teleporting" counters such as Arche and Master's. It will trigger Red Frame and Cheridum's but will be inconsequential to you as you have to be near them for it to hit you.

BOOST DASH MELEE (BD8BB)

The best tool to use for closing in the gap while maintaining a semblence of boost efficiency. Ideal range to use boost dash melee on an unaware opponent is approximately half of red lock range, where you are able to get in using 2 boost dash melees. The timing is dependent on opponent's boost and resources which need to be mentally checked before going in. Landing punishes are extremely recommended if you are in range.

If you are looking to get in extremely quickly and want to commit into melee, 3 or 4 boost dash melees can get to where you want. Remember to weigh your options before deciding to go in. There is no need to waste your mantle and get hit by a gerobi for full damage.

Once you connect with your BD8B, check your radar and lock arrows. New to full boost is the fact that you can target switch during this combo up to the end. If you feel anything might be incoming, perform a 6b→whip or double whip and be prepared to block, land, or evade. It mayt also be prudent to even neutral whip and perform followups as the new pull followup will allow for evasion. Note that you can still get a double whip combo after 3 total hits of BD8BB and not anymore.

TOBIA (A+C)

U-turn Tobia makes a comeback. Hit confirm into a BR, whip, or melee for additional damage.

Regarding the use of this assist, try and be creative. The most obvious Tobia will only result in the opponent sidestepping and you wasting a stock. So what should you look for before activating Tobia? Essentially, you want to find places where it will be difficult to sidestep such as a kansei jump, or zunda. The earlier the activation, the better the chances for Tobia to reach the opponent. Even better if your opponent does not know it's coming.

Another point of utility is the defensive Tobia. Sidestep Tobia is extremely useful in a variety of situations. Note that Tobia appears to the back left of X1. The standard chain of BR>>BR→BZ wastes a ton of boost and if you sidestep Tobia, there's a good chance that you'll catch a landing or a combo. You can also use this on wakeup against melee happy opponents where you'll catch them unaware and you can easily kansei jump/fuwa step away if you whiff because of how fast the startup is for Tobia. Sidestep Tobia will not work on gerobi oki so keep that in mind.

RADAR CONFIRM

Once you are anywhere near the enemy. Check your radar. Check if you are double locked. Use the information gained throughout the match to decide if you should go in or not.

Once you land a combo, check this shit again. It's important not to get hit. Decide if you should end your combo early with a whip or go for more damage.

BR>>BR>>WHIP/BD8B

If you are in range for a whip/BD8B after a zunda, always go for it. You deal more damage, and you conserve ammo. Single BR confirm into melee combo is also important in regards to the micro melee game.

MELEE TARGET SWITCH COMBOS

Pretty important in directly reacting outside of red arrows. The attacks listed below are generally enders. Starters being 6B/BD8BB/BR. Note anticut techniques section for further details if you are in danger during these combos. It is more ideal to knockdown first than complete a combo than leaving your combo incomplete and allowing a tech.

BD8BB(D) The most staple starter. Target switch can occur as soon as you start the animation and does amazing damage.
5B(D)BB Not really important as you don't really use this combo. The importance however is that this attack will move you towards the ground much quicker than any other. (Rider kick!)
6B(D)→6A+B Very fast with good damage. Rainbow step jump when you're done for fastest landing.
8B(D)B→6A+B or 8BB>(side hop) BR(D) Takes a little longer with a launching ender. Allows you to view the situation a lot longer as well. Note that the BR ender is more boost efficient. Can substitute 8B starter with the 5BB8B chain.

CUT RESISTANT COMBOS

NONE. This is extremely important to know that you do not have any combos that allow you to dodge anything. End your combos early to avoid damage. 6b loop is your best bet at avoiding BR shots but do not count on it. The last hit of 5bbb may allow you to avoid incoming BRs but requires lucky timing that you cannot confirm.

ANTICUT TECHNIQUES

Ideally, you'll want to end your combos with a target switch combo. Assess the situation and see if you can land without getting hit; sometimes the best answer to a situation is not to attack and proceed to safety. In fact, I suggest doing this most of the time as it is the most safe option. Included below are situations that are dire enough that you have to commit to an attack and cannot get away.

These are the situations that you will encounter from the opposition and how to deal with them under pressure. Note that I do not include EX Burst in this for obvious reasons.

(1) Immediate BR zunda/gerobi

Rainbow step hop (BR). Do not shoot if you are backturned obviously.
Block. Very situational so it is preferred to rainbow step hop. Usually used in overheat and in situations where you cannot avoid incoming fire with a rainbow step.

Luckily, X1 has very fast recovery on some of his melee attacks. After confirming or sensing the incoming fire, end your combo promptly with whip and block. If spaced and timed properly you should block whatever is incoming. An alternative option with boost is to do a rainbow step block. Note that the opponent that you were hitting might tech and punish you for dropping your combo and blocking if you started with BD8BB or end with 8BB launcher. The safest option is to end your combo quickly if you want to attempt to block.

(2) Melee

Rainbow step 6b is the most damaging option. Look out for double lock as your partner is probably doing something already.
Rainbow step whip. Very strong anti-melee option. Will not work if the opponent is already up in your face as whip startup takes a bit before it's active.
Rainbow step BR. Depending on the range, you can definitely attempt to follow up if hit. Be aware that this loses horribly to a rainbow step so only try this if you have significant boost to use and are far enough from the enemy to kansei jump away.
Block. Same explanation as (1).
Rainbow step A+C. Sometimes an effective option as Tobia's hitbox is huge. Try not to resort to this as Tobia is a valuable resource and can easily be avoided by a single rainbow step. Note that he always appears from X1's left.
Rainbow step 2B→BR You could also cancel BR into 2B if you're feeling something in your gut, but the duration for the entire chain may be too long.

(3) Nothing until you land. Opponent content on looking for landing punish and not immediate cut.